Parker’s Picks For Statewide Judicial Races

Hi, Hooligans. I’m Parker, and I was invited to offer up a voter guide for the Judicial elections. Here’s a little about my background:

I’ve lived in North Carolina my entire life and I am convinced it is the best state in the Union. The more I travel, the more I realize how true that is. I consider myself a John Edwards populist (the I’m-really-worried-about-the-lower-middle-class type, not the oops-I-impregnated-my-secretary type). I was appalled at the failure of the Democratic Party to push the best choice for one of the Court of Appeals seats (Leto Copley), leaving us with the possibility of a 29-year old who drinks the Tea. With two judges leaving the bench after the primary this year’s Buncombe County ballot will be extra confusing for voters, so we all need to pitch in to help educate people.

You can offer your own choices in the comments section of the voter guide. And please offer your choices for the District Court races, which I do not cover in this post.

Pay attention to the state wide Court of Appeals and Supreme Court Candidates if you are at all concerned with how a different majority might affect the decisions being made in Raleigh.

This IndWeek guide was one of the sources I used to “pick three” judge recommendations to replace Judge Wynn.

The most important vote you cast this November may be for a Judge

Any given day in North Carolina, our Court of Appeals and Supreme Court make decisions that affect our families, jobs, and property. More recently they’ve heard cases on:

Same sex adoption
Environmental regulations and enforcement
Eminent Domain
Foreclosure and Subprime Loans
State challenges to national healthcare program

Why are these races so much harder to understand and explain than regular races? Here’s your quick and dirty rundown of STATEWIDE judicial elections in North Carolina, so you can impress your friends then take them to vote:

Judicial Elections in North Carolina are nonpartisan. This means straight ticket voting doesn’t cast you vote for judges. Without a handy political shorthand for your kindred spirits, you need to do your research.

Judges on the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals are elected to 8 year terms and have no term limits. Legal decisions are much more difficult to change than legislation. That’s a lot of bad law that can be made by a few judges for a long time.

Court of Appeals has 15 judges who hear cases in 3 judge panels and hear appeals except in death penalty cases.

The Supreme Court consists of 6 justices and 1 chief justice and can only be appealed to the US Supreme Court.

Supreme Court – Bob Hunter is a Western North Carolina native who authored over 700 opinions while on the Court of Appeals.

Court of Appeals Geer Seat – Martha Geer is the incumbent and prior to serving on the court she litigated cases in all court levels, state and federal, including the Supreme Court.

Court of Appeal Calabria seat – Jane Gray is a Wake County District Court Judge who also worked for the Department of Justice.

Court of Appeals Wynn seat – Hold on, this one’s confusing. Justice Wynn left his seat in August to serve on the federal courts. Because the timing allowed no primary there are a whopping 13 people on the ballot for his seat. Voters will get to rank their top 3 choices and if no candidate gets 50% the state uses a rare system called instant run-off. These are the candidates (progressive candidates for your consideration have a * and are listed first):

Court of Appeals Elmore seat – The nonpartisan primary and voter apathy left us no progressives in this race. So the lesser evil is the incumbent (Elmore) who has substantial legal experience and represented indigent clients throughout his career. His opponent is very conservative and has never represented a client or tried a case in court since he graduated from law school 5 years ago.

I’ve read the “Judicial Voter Guide” repeatedly, trying to scrape out bits of information. I appreciate your research and opinion as it gives me a little bit more information to apply when trying to make my choices.

Thank you for taking the time to include the IRV race and for the nod in my direction in this election. What more does a candidate need that an endorsement from Scrutiny Hooligans? (Love the name, love your site). Anne Middleton

Thank You for your comments
I agree with designation that a strategy is needed when voting in the Instant run off election. Except a strategy would really require statewide organization, which is something that I haven’t seen a lot of for Judge races.

Sueto’s point about switching back to appointing Judges is an interesting one. Unfortunately, it does seem that partisan hacks and religious zealots have the loudest voice with voters, so it might be something to think about. At least Something worth debating on Scroo Hoo sometime after the election.

EVERYONE NEEDS TO HELP EDUCATE THEIR FRIENDS AND FAMILY ABOUT THESE RACES!

An observation that may be off base, but I would like to hear other opinions—
Heather Goldstein is the only candidate that I have ever seen have her first name be the most prominent on her campaign signs. Is she worried that Goldstein might be too “ethnic” (Jewish) for the public to digest?
Just sign me a curious Jew……

Thought about going on a Chris Berman rant
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TLG_LtWhj4) a few weeks ago after seeing 13 – THIRTEEN! names listed on the Court of Appeals seat ballot.
I hate to say it, but this is one where people are going to close their eyes and say “oh, I like that name better than that other one” and the cat lady from The Simpsons will begin carrying a gavel in one hand while throwing cats with the other….

Yes, everyone PLEASE help people learn more about the candidates this year!